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Abstract

Cephalothin therapy is associated with a positive direct antiglobulin test in 3% to 65% of patients receiving this drug (1, 2). Most often the responsible mechanism is nonimmune adsorption of serum proteins to cephalothin-exposed erythrocytes (3). Cephalothin-related hemolysis has been reported and is associated with specific anticephalothin antibodies (4, 5). We describe here a case of cephalothin-related Coombs' positive hemolytic anemia in which IgG antibody has been identified in the patient's serum and on erythrocytes.

A 64-year-old white man was admitted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital on 3 August 1975, for evaluation of chills